Flanfire

Billy Brent Malkus is putting together a real jewel with his new band The Sapphires, whom you can now find out more about at a brand-new website - www.thesapphires.net . Tonight the band was at the Long Branch Inn for two sets of music that really needs a big dance floor to be fully appreciated. FOR THE RECORD, THIS BAND MOVES ME THE WAY GRAM PARSONS USED TO - AND FOR VERY VERY GOOD REASONS!!!!

There was an air of sadness in the air as Brent and the band memorialized the life of bluegrass legend Brother Jimmy Martin, who became bound for glory just hours earlier. But for most of the night, the unabashed joy of all five band members - especially fellow lead singer Rebecca Lucille Cannon (and her cannonball voice). The lineup now appears set with Beaumont native Paul Schroeder on mandolin, banjo and occasional guitar; Jackson, Mississippi's Jeff Joiner on bass fiddle; and the pride of Minneapolis, Ram Zimmerman, on drums (I first saw Ram with Kim DesChamps last year). Those with long memories recall Rebecca once fronted Sincola, a band which also featured drummer Terri Lord and guitarist Kris Patterson.

Honey, those days are long past, as are Brent's own punk-pop memories. Now the dynamic duo (who act and sound on stage as though they had grown up singing together) are serenading us with music that has that classic country and western with the punk edginess added in that reminds one of Buck Owens meets Gram Parsons meets Hank III - but the Sapphires are already making their own memories for their fans. Hawking T-shirts, giving away bumper stickers, and promoting a 3-song EP, the Sapphires are on the brink of becoming household names throughout Austin and parts far beyond.

On a forthcoming CD (no, not that soon!), we are likely to hear such original tunes as Ladyfest, Texas; Deep Gap Blue; and Cold Silver Ring plus Rebecca's sparkling rendition of the Hazel Dickens classic, "You'll Get No More of Me" (which in concert tonight was a joy to watch). Rebecca never stands still for a moment on stage, and Brent is the nearest thing to Gram Parsons in his "Full Western Dress" (thanks, Derailers) that Austin has seen for quite a while. Did I mention the Brent-Rebecca co-authored song, The Emerald Outlaw," which could soon become a classic country song. The energy this band displays on stage is phenomenal - and Brent's original idea was not to be a front man but to showcase his fellow players. We have seen the likes of Kris Brown, Kim DesChamps, and various others join the band on stage and the wonderful Eleanor Whitmore lends her ethereal fiddle to some of the songs that will soon (but not soon enough, truly!) be generally available. Tonight, just as at a recent barn dance, the band royally kicked butt with their pedal to the metal version of the Gram Parsons classic, "Ooh Las Vegas." I LOVE THIS BAND!

Opening for the Sapphires was Austin singer songwriter and published author Dao Strom. One might expect a wholly different kind of music from a woman born in wartime in Vietnam and fleeing to America to live in Placerville, California (yep, that's gold country in them thar hills), but what we get here is a pure country Americana soul with lyrics that one might expect from a real writer. Like her first novel, "Grass Roof, Tin Roof," her songs are literate and yet haunting as if she comes from a different century rather than a different country. Brent Malkus played dobro to support Dao's own guitar, and as one might expect doubled our pleasure.

Dao did several songs off her highly acclaimed debut CD, "Send Me Home," plus two new songs, one titled "The Girl on Your Star" and the other (well, it's so new it doesn't even have a name). Both were excellent, as was "Perfume River." Her friend Kate says Dao is perfect, and it would be hard to disagree - but we have to be honest, and the truth is that Dao still seems to be filtering our her loveliness through the narrow end of a funnel. The size of her talent far exceeds the size of her ego (a very good thing!) and (less fortunately) the size of her vision of just how much she truly has to give to her audience. As Dao grows as a performer (remember, she is hard at work on her second novel and is still learning who she is as a singer), we look for her to emerge as at least a young Mimi Farina if not a young Joan Baez (Mimi's better known sister). In short, if you like traditional music or just good songs, go out to Dao's gigs, sit up close and personal, smile a lot at her, and watch her grow right in front of your eyes and into your heart.

Okay, so I also spent an hour or so at the Mangia's grand opening way up in nosebleed country (North Austin - Gracy Farms and Burnet/MOPAC) chomping on free pizza and listening to Chelle Murray and her band - and meeting up with Jo Dean and Richard Aleksander of Aleksander Gallery, who introduced me to Canadian (from Saskatchewan) singer songwriter Heidi Little (www.heidilittle.com) , who just arrived in Austin with lots of stories to tell. Word is she's putting a band together with some notable central Texas musicians and hopes to be playing gigs in all the right places in the near future. We know she's booked at the Farmers Market in South Austin next Saturday and may be playing again at Geno's. Check out her website and especially her "Updates" section plus her downloads to get an idea of her sound.

Then it was off to Woofstock to celebrate dogdom and hear a set from local legend Jimmy LaFave (which was stopped three times by power outages). Friends tell me that Sis DeVille had smoked the house (did the dogs turn into sausages?) earlier in the afternoon, and Penny Jo Pullus not only played but adopted a cute little black and white puppy. Ginger Leigh hung around to catch Jimmy's set after following Sis DeVille with a set of her own. Tammy (Austin's own www.honkytonkangel.com) was in the house, filming Sis DeVille and lending her grace to the scene, and the security for the event was provided by Dee the singing policeman.

Way back on Tuesday I was privileged to be invited to a special airing of Wendy Lorraine Colonna's forthcoming CD, "Right Where I Belong." This CD, produced by Stephen Doster (as was Carolyn Wonderland's last release), will be highly sought after by anyone looking for top flight songs to cover, but Wendy (who is touring with Guy Forsyth as a duo until May 28) will surely get a wider audience for her own golden voice. Players on the CD include Eldridge Goins on drums (who has to love the jazzy sounds on so many of the songs) and Wayne Sutton on guitar plus Cole El Saleh on keyboards and Leslie McCurdy on bass (that's the basic band) with guest appearances from Guy Forsyth himself, Warren Hood on violin, Brian Standerfer on cello, Ephraim Owens on trumpet, Jon Blondel on French horn, Su Walenta Hunt on percussion, and the amazing Brad Hauser on baritone sax (it's hard to believe, hearing him play this instrument, that he's better known as a bassist). The music was recorded by James Stevens at The Bridge Studios here in town.

Word is a famous Austin singer is already wanting to record the final cut, "Nothin Gonna Take My Love," which contains the lines, "May I sow the seeds of generosity, May I dance and laugh in stride; May my mind be stilled with humility and surrender all my pride."

Reminds me that I first met Wendy while dancing all over Antone's during someone's set at some longtimeago benefit concert. Then she got up on stage and sang with Guy and I found out she could sing AND dance! She's a Lake Charles gal - with a big heart and a bigger smile - and an amazing ability to communicate with her song lyrics. Her earier ventures in recording (hard to find, but worth a listen) revealed her songwriting talent to this observer, who learned from hearing them that she had a lot to say in addition to being a fun-loving Louisiana Italian woman.

Now, I told Susan Cassels of KGSR that May Day and October may be the best songs on the record - but others would argue for the title cut, Sail On, Coffee Today, Vacancy, or just about any song on the record. Coffee Today is a pure ballad about a woman waiting for her lover while drinking coffee alone; Vacancy is what her heart has in case someone is looking.

October may be the finest jazzy ballad I have heard anywhere in years (note to Diana Krall or any of her peers - record this song tomorrow if not sooner and make Wendy RICH!). The song starts with these lines - "October she smells like a newborn child; soft like a lily while the ragweed's gone wild; And the roads are all dusty, dripping with tar, and the coyote serenades each falling star." Pure poetry. Then it's, "Would you come back home? I'm in love all alone" (surrounded by ooh ooh's that drip with honey - how could anyone stay away?).

"Does It Satisfy" opens with (and is permeated by) the haunting trumpet of Owens and segues into a sexy steamy soliloquy that asks, "Does it satisfy to have your finger in the pie and have your cake and eat it, too?"

May Day has these immortal lines -- "You live from day to day you love from hour to hour; you can't be satisfied, you fly from flower to flower; you say your days are numbered, they are few; nobody ever taught you to be true." This is pure pop top forty stuff that just has to get lots of radio airplay. Hear that, Shelly K.

On "Right Where I Belong" (and perhaps other songs as well) we get a chorus that includes Forsyth and McCurdy PLUS Brian Keane, Carolyn Wonderland, Cristin "Moxy" Castro, and Shannon Brackett -- this is yet another song that cries for the famous to jump on it.

"Vacancy" is this bluesy song with a wonderul hook, "If by chance you were waiting for someone to love and your heart needs a home to key, If by chance you were waiting for someone to love, my heart has a vacancy." I like this song almost as much as I like October and maybe a tad better than Coffee Today. Doster's work shows wonderfully on all three ballads, but then he has a lot to work with here.

It's too early to tell whether Wendy's songs will outpace her own singing career - but if she can rise in performance to the level of her songwriting, we may have found this generation's Lucinda Williams (but with a warmer heart).